A former safety researcher at OpenAI says he is “pretty terrified” about the pace of development in artificial intelligence, warning the industry is taking a “very risky gamble” on the technology, The Guardian reports.
Adler, who left OpenAI in November, said in a series of posts on X that he’d had a “wild ride” at the US company and would miss “many parts of it”.
However, he said the technology was developing so quickly it raised doubts about the future of humanity.
“I’m pretty terrified by the pace of AI development these days,” he said. “When I think about where I’ll raise a future family, or how much to save for retirement, I can’t help but wonder: will humanity even make it to that point?”
Adler’s fears have been echoed by some of the world’s leading AI researchers, Fortune pointed out.
Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Financial Times that the “AGI race is a race towards the edge of a cliff.”
“Even the CEOs who are engaging in the race have stated that whoever wins has a significant probability of causing human extinction in the process, because we have no idea how to control systems more intelligent than ourselves,” he said.
Adler’s and Russell’s comments come amid increased attention on a global AI race between the US and China. The news that Chinese company DeepSeek had potentially built an equal or better AI model than leading US labs at a fraction of the cost spooked US investors on Monday and sparked a reaction from leading tech figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.